Prof. Joash Amupitan, Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has urged Administrative Secretaries to reject shortcuts and political interference in the discharge of their duties ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Amupitan gave the charge on Monday in Lagos at a Strategic Operational Workshop for INEC Administrative Secretaries from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
He said the professionalism of state offices depended largely on the institutional culture created by Administrative Secretaries and their commitment to discipline, neutrality, punctuality and compliance.
“Your leadership matters. The professionalism of a State office does not emerge by accident. It is created by institutional culture.
“If you tolerate shortcuts, shortcuts will multiply. If you tolerate political interference, neutrality will deteriorate.
“If you insist on documentation, documentation will become institutional culture. If you insist on punctuality, preparedness and compliance, those values will spread throughout the organisation.
“If you respond constructively to problems, your officers will report problems rather than conceal them.
“Your responsibility, therefore, is to build an administrative culture capable of delivering a credible election,” he said.
The INEC chairman also urged the Administrative Secretaries to remain professionally competent and sufficiently knowledgeable to prevent anyone from taking advantage of them in the discharge of their responsibilities.
Amupitan said the Administrative Secretary remained a critical bridge between INEC policy and its implementation at the state level.
He said their responsibilities included ensuring institutional discipline, operational readiness, administrative continuity, proper documentation and early escalation of emerging challenges.
According to him, Administrative Secretaries must also support Electoral Officers, promote neutrality and protect the institutional independence of the Commission.
The chairman said lessons from recent off-cycle elections, particularly the Osun Governorship Election, had demonstrated that effective logistics, functional technology and administrative discipline were critical to credible elections.
“When logistics move on time, when technology functions as designed, and when administrative leads maintain strict discipline, the outcome is a transparent and credible election,” he said.
Amupitan, however, said the success recorded in single-state elections must now be translated into a uniform national operational standard ahead of the general election.
He said the Commission was entering a critical six-month preparation window and could no longer afford fragmented interpretations of administrative responsibilities or divergent operational practices across states.
The chairman said the two-day workshop was designed to eliminate guesswork, harmonise operational strategies and ensure that Administrative Secretaries understood standardised national protocols.
He said the workshop would focus on Continuous Voter Registration and Permanent Voter Card distribution, logistics and election materials management, electoral technologies, human resources and ad-hoc staff optimisation and others.
Amupitan said particular attention would be given to institutional mastery of technologies including the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), IReV, eEC8A, Election Monitoring and Support Centre (EMSC), CROMS, IOMIS and PFRAS.
He said the Commission would also develop a standardised Excel-based Administrative Secretary Master Operational Tracker to provide a real-time picture of state-level election readiness.
According to him, the tracker will link with the EMSC dashboard and Election Project Plan, enabling relevant officers at the state and headquarters levels to monitor material distribution, ad-hoc staff training and other readiness indicators.
“Once finalised, this data-driven template will serve as a real-time readiness dashboard.
“It will enable RECs, Supervising National Commissioners, the Secretary to the Commission, and Headquarters to monitor material distribution, ad-hoc staff training, and state-level readiness instantly, replacing reactive panic with proactive management,” he said.
The chairman said the template would also provide a permanent onboarding framework for future Administrative Secretaries beyond the 2027 election.
He urged the participants to engage actively with facilitators and development partners, identify state-specific operational bottlenecks and leave the workshop with clear understanding of their mandates.
Amupitan said the synergy between Administrative Secretaries and Resident Electoral Commissioners would be crucial to the smooth conduct of the 2027 General Election.
He commended the Office of the Secretary to the Commission and development partners for organising the workshop, describing it as timely and necessary for national electoral preparedness.
In his welcome address, Prof. Ayobami Salami, Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Lagos State, urged INEC Administrative Secretaries to strengthen coordination, accountability and operational readiness ahead of the 2027 General Election.
Salami stressed the need for strategic, systematic and collective preparation for the election.
He said Administrative Secretaries occupied a critical position in election administration, with their effectiveness having direct implications for the success of electoral operations.
“Our ability to coordinate people, resources, logistics, finance, infrastructure and administrative processes must therefore be aligned with the Commission’s broader electoral objectives,” he said.
Salami urged participants to share field experiences, identify operational gaps and develop practical solutions that could be applied in their respective states.
He said the ultimate value of the workshop would be measured by how effectively participants translated lessons from the sessions into improved operations, stronger accountability and resilient systems for the 2027 election.
Speaking, Mrs Rose Oriaran-Anthony, INEC Secretary, urged Administrative Secretaries to ensure greater synergy with Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) to enhance preparations for the 2027 General Election.
Oriaran-Anthony said the Commission had convened the workshop to ensure that its headquarters and state offices operated within the same framework and implemented the Election Project Plan in line with its expectations.
“The election is actually on us. We must not wait until it is a few days or two days to begin serious preparation and, in fact, getting things done,” she said.
She said the workshop would provide a safe space for Administrative Secretaries to openly identify operational bottlenecks, particularly those affecting their working relationships with RECs, and collectively develop solutions.
According to her, logistics, recruitment and training of ad-hoc personnel, financial and asset management, staff discipline and mastery of electoral technologies would be central to the workshop.
She said getting these areas right would make the 2027 election easier to administer. (NAN)
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